Sir Samuel Fludyer, 1st Baronet
Sir Samuel Fludyer, 1st Baronet (c. 1704 – 18 January 1768), of Lee Place in
Biography
Fludyer was the eldest son of Samuel Fludyer, a London clothier but originally from Frome in Somerset, and was educated at Westminster School. He was by upbringing a religious dissenter, though in later years he moved towards the established church.[2] Joining his father's business, he expanded it greatly until he was one of the city's foremost merchants; by the time of his death his fortune was said to amount to £900,000. (His younger brother, Sir Thomas, was his junior partner in the company and was knighted at a City of London reception for the King while Sir Samuel was Lord Mayor.)
Becoming a member of the
In 1754, Fludyer entered Parliament, having spent £1,500 to secure a seat at
In his second Parliament he seems to have actively sought government contracts for his business, which being an MP (with a vote valuable to the government) he was well placed to secure, and in 1763 took over (in partnership with Adam Drummond) as contractor to the Treasury as Paymaster to the British forces in the North American colonies. When the Marquess of Rockingham's government replaced George Grenville's he was on the list of those whose contracts it was initially intended to cancel, but notice to terminate was not given to him until July 1766; days later Rockingham had resigned and Fludyer, by supporting the new Chatham administration, saw his contract reinstated the following year.
He married twice: to Jane Clerke (d. 1757), by whom he had one daughter; and to Caroline Brudenell (d. 1803), niece of the 3rd Earl of Cardigan, whom he married on 2 September 1758. They had two sons:
- Samuel Brudenell Fludyer (1759–1833), who succeeded to the baronetcy, and was MP for Aldborough
- George Fludyer (1761–1837), MP for Chippenham and Appleby
Fludyer died in 1768 and was buried in the churchyard of St Margaret's, Lee.
See also
References
- ^ Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.363
- ^ Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
- ^ "No. 9947". The London Gazette. 13 November 1759. p. 3.
- ^ Page 14, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
- Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
- Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
- Thomas Wotton, Edward Kimber and Richard Johnson, The Baronetage of England (London, 1771) [1]